Baby Nursery Dramatic Play

Our Dramatic play area has been transformed into a baby nursery this week! A few of our students have new babies at home, and another couple are going to welcome new siblings soon. It seems like a great time to introduce this center.

Babies sure come with their own set of gear! We made this vocabulary wall for the students’ reference. They can use it when they are writing or drawing about babies.

Here is a little nook where the students can rock and read stories to their babies. Pretending to read is an important emergent skill! The baskets are full of board books (which are not usually in our classroom library).

We need a whole wall of stroller parking! Having wheeled toys indoors can be challenging. It is definitely important that we talk about keeping our babies safe by walking them in the strollers, and not running them around the room. When we do go outdoors to play, the students are allowed to take their babies out too.

The rest of our dramatic play has other baby essentials. The hutch now holds all of the bottles and cups. There is a changing table with real (premie) diapers and wipes. The laundry station has a basket full of baby clothing that needs to be cleaned and folded. See, moms? We’re trying to help you out by enlisting some laundry assistants! There are also a few small cribs for sleepy babies.

Each day in preschool our students take home a “Daily Report” that describes their morning work, our circle time activity, the centers, snack, etc. We made these special Daily Reports for the students to complete for their babies. They love taking a turn at being the adult! (The recording sheets, as well as the vocabulary signs and pennant banner are all available on TpT.)

A couple of our favorite books about babies are Julius: Baby of the World and Alligator Baby. They are perfect for introducing this center to the students.

So, what do you think? Are the preschoolers playing or learning at this new dramatic play center? Is it possible that there is no difference? (My opinion is here, and I would love to hear yours too.)